One of the most perplexing issues of the Anthropocene is that the political-industrial complex appears not only apathetic in its response to the crises at stake, but utterly keen on maintaining the status quo of their vested interests. This exchange approaches this subject from the intricate nexus of petroleum geology and the de-facto success of global warming denialism, a nexus that lets the world continue on with “business as usual.” It also discusses the somewhat schizophrenic position of geology between an applied science in the service of extraction and the insights gained by their colleagues on the devastating effects.

Archaeology and AestheticsChus Martínez (Art Institute, FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Basel) and Matt Edgeworth (School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester)

The intensive encounter with materiality has profound resonance in two seemingly very different fields: archaeological excavation and curatorial practice. Excavating the past—in between geological and human-modified strata—is a very matter-sensitive act. The curatorial, on the other hand, appears often as a means of approaching the knowledge-strata of aesthetic forms from a thingly basis. How does the sensual practice of contact with the buried play out in relation to working on and exhibiting contemporary artefacts? Curator Chus Martínez and archaeologist Matt Edgeworth converge from two different angles onto the vitality of matters.